An adventure through the words of The Hobbit

Firework

“Firework”, singular, is outside of The Hundred Thousand. OED tells us that in its meaning as “a pyrotechnic display” although the plural “fireworks” only is used now, the singular used to be used. Most instances in The Hobbit are of “fireworks” except one. The uninflected form could be the older form for the meaning just cited – or could be the form indicating other, obsolete meanings of “firework” (work done in fire, a furnace, and others). Of course… Tolkien uses it in paragraph 01.091 adjectivally, to describe the glare of the blue light on Gandalf’s staff. OED admits of no adjectival uses, except as the first element in some hyphenated word phrases. The word we know is tweaked so very gently off the rails – we can take nothing for granted, yet we do not know consciously that we have been alerted. Absolutely elegant.